An Approach for Printing Tissue-mimicking Abnormalities Dedicated to Applications in Breast Imaging

Dukov, Nikolay; Feradov, Firgan; Gospodinova, Galya; Bliznakova, Kristina

doi:10.1109/et.2019.8878587

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The observed increase of peak power was as large 30%-40% for sample thickness less than 50 mm. We note that FDM printing strategies have been reported which may eliminate this source of spatial non-uniformity when realizing variabledensity (non-homogeneous) realistic breast phantoms (Okkalidis 2018, Daskalov et al 2019, Dukov et al 2019b, Dukov et al 2022. As regards the object repeatability/reproducibility in 3D printing sessions, in terms of object average density, dimensional deviations were observed not exceeding 1%, both intra-session (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Attenuation coefficient in the energy range 14–36 keV of 3D printing materials for physical breast phantoms

Mettivier

Sarno²,

Varallo³

et al. 2022

Phys. Med. Biol.

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Objective To measure the monoenergetic x-ray linear attenuation coefficient, μ, of fused deposition modeling (FDM) colored 3D printing materials (ABS, PLAwhite, PLAorange, PET and NYLON), used as adipose, glandular or skin tissue substitutes for manufacturing physical breast phantoms. Approach Attenuation data (at 14, 18, 20, 24, 28, 30 and 36 keV) were acquired at Elettra synchrotron radiation facility, with step-wedge objects, using the Lambert-Beer law and a CCD imaging detector. Test objects were 3D printed using the Ultimaker 3 FDM printer. PMMA, Nylon-6 and high-density polyethylene step objects were also investigated for the validation of the proposed methodology. Printing uniformity was assessed via monoenergetic and polyenergetic imaging (32 kV, W/Rh). Main results Maximum absolute deviation of μ for PMMA, Nylon-6 and HD-PE was 5.0%, with reference to literature data. For ABS and NYLON, μ differed by less than 6.1% and 7.1% from that of adipose tissue, respectively; for PET and PLAorange the difference was less than 11.3% and 6.3% from glandular tissue, respectively. PLAorange is a good substitute of skin (differences from -9.4% to +1.2%). Hence, ABS and NYLON filaments are suitable adipose tissue substitutes, while PET and PLAorange mimick the glandular tissue. PLAwhite could be printed at less than 100% infill density for matching the attenuation of glandular tissue, using the measured density calibration curve. The printing mesh was observed for sample thicknesses less than 60 mm, imaged in the direction normal to the printing layers. Printing dimensional repeatability and reproducibility was less 1%. Significance For the first time was provided a first experimental determination of common 3D printing filament material for estimating μ at all energies in the range 14–36 keV, for their use in mammography, breast tomosynthesis and breast computed tomography investigations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Attenuation coefficient in the energy range 14–36 keV of 3D printing materials for physical breast phantoms

Mettivier

Sarno²,

Varallo³

et al. 2022

Phys. Med. Biol.

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“…The developed tool was used in a series of image evaluation studies [49][50][51][52][53]. In the following paragraph, we show the use of the tool in two original research applications in the field of x-ray breast imaging: (1) evaluation of the features from a series of left and right (pairs) CC breast clinical mammograms, and (2) evaluation of the suitability of newly proposed and developed breast phantoms for x-ray-based imaging.…”

Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiomics software for breast imaging optimization and simulation studies

Marinov

Buliev²,

Cockmartin

et al. 2021

Physica Medica

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Background and Objective: The development, control and optimisation of new x-ray breast imaging modalities could benefit from a quantitative assessment of the resulting image textures. The aim of this work was to develop a software tool for routine radiomics applications in breast imaging, which will also be available upon request. Methods: The tool (developed in MATLAB) allows image reading, selection of Regions of Interest (ROI), analysis and comparison. Requirements towards the tool also included convenient handling of common medical and simulated images, building and providing a library of commonly applied algorithms and a friendly graphical user interface. Initial set of features and analyses have been selected after a literature search. Being open, the tool can be extended, if necessary. Results: The tool allows semi-automatic extracting of ROIs, calculating and processing a total of 23 different metrics or features in 2D images and/or in 3D image volumes. Computations of the features were verified against computations with other software packages performed with test images. Two case studies illustrate the applicability of the tool -(i) features on a series of 2D 'left' and 'right' CC mammograms acquired on a Siemens Inspiration system were computed and compared, and (ii) evaluation of the suitability of newly proposed and developed breast phantoms for x-ray-based imaging based on reference values from clinical mammography images. Obtained results could steer the further development of the physical breast phantoms. Conclusions: A new image analysis toolbox was realized and can now be used in a multitude of radiomics applications, on both clinical and test images.

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“…FDM technology was chosen for manufacturing of torso phantoms (Craft and Howell 2017), a finger phantom (Savi et al 2020) and dosimetry phantoms for evaluating the effects of newly produced implants (Goodall et al 2021), as well as pelvic phantoms for optimisation of preoperative CT scans (Hamedani et al 2018), and chest, neck, head phantoms (Kamomae et al 2017, Okkalidis 2018, Okkalidis and Marinakis 2020 and lung tissues (Mei et al 2022). In the field of mammography, phantoms for imaging purposes were manufactured with a FDM printer by both UNINA and Varna research groups (Bliznakova et al 2020, Dukov et al 2019, Feradov et al 2020 through exploiting one or two filament materials to reproduce the two main tissues in the breast: the gland and the adipose.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A voxel-by-voxel method for mixing two filaments during a 3D printing process for soft-tissue replication in an anthropomorphic breast phantom

Okkalidis¹,

Bliznakova²

2022

Phys. Med. Biol.

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Objective: In this study, a novel voxel-by-voxel mixing method is presented, according to which two filaments of different material are combined during the 3D printing process. Approach: In our approach, two types of filaments were used for the replication of soft-tissues, a polylactic acid (PLA) filament and a polypropylene (PP) filament. A custom-made software was used, while a series of breast patient CT scan images were directly associated to the 3D printing process. Each phantom´s layer was printed twice, once with the PLA filament and a second time with the PP filament. For each material, the filament extrusion rate was controlled voxel-by-voxel and was based on the HU of the imported CT images. The phantom was scanned at clinical CT, breast tomosynthesis and Micro CT facilities, as the major processing was performed on data from the CT. A side by side comparison between patient´s and phantom´s CT slices by means of profile and histogram comparison was accomplished. Further, in case of profile comparison, the Pearson´s coefficients were calculated. Main results: The visual assessment of the distribution of the glandular tissue in the CT slices of the printed breast anatomy showed high degree of radiological similarity to the corresponding patient´s glandular distribution. The profile plots´ comparison showed that the Hounsfield Units (HU) of the replicated and original patient soft tissues match adequately. In overall, the Pearson´s coefficients were above 0.91, suggesting a close match of the CT images of the phantom with those of the patient. The overall HU were close in terms of HU ranges. The HU mean, median and standard deviation of the original and the phantom CT slices were -149, -167, ±65, and -121, -130, ±91, respectively. Significance: The results suggest that the proposed methodology is appropriate for manufacturing of anthropomorphic soft tissue phantoms for x-ray imaging and dosimetry purposes, since it may offer an accurate replication of these tissues.

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An Approach for Printing Tissue-mimicking Abnormalities Dedicated to Applications in Breast Imaging

Cited by 7 publications

References 6 publications

Attenuation coefficient in the energy range 14–36 keV of 3D printing materials for physical breast phantoms

Attenuation coefficient in the energy range 14–36 keV of 3D printing materials for physical breast phantoms

Radiomics software for breast imaging optimization and simulation studies

A voxel-by-voxel method for mixing two filaments during a 3D printing process for soft-tissue replication in an anthropomorphic breast phantom

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